Crisis on Infinite Earths

I’ve wanted to post some links about this ever since I saw the trade paperback version for sale a few weeks ago. Here’s the Annotated Crisis on Infinite Earths — a very in-depth site — and here’s a shorter explanation for those of you who just don’t care as much as I do.

Crisis on Infinite Earths was pretty much the greatest comic book miniseries ever, and it came out around the time that I started collecting comics in 1985. It was done in honor of DC Comics’ 50th anniversary, and it was intended to restore order to the sprawling DC Multiverse; by the time the yearlong series was over, universes had disappeared and numerous heroes had died, including such well-loved characters as the Flash and Supergirl. DC Comics would never be the same. The series had an epic scope and contained some heart-rending moments; it also had terrific artwork by George Perez, including portrayals of what seemed like almost every superhero or villain who had appeared in a DC comic in the previous 50 years — including two Supermen, two Wonder Women, and so forth. (Here’s an early picture of the two Flashes — they started the whole problem years ago.)

I kicked the comic book habit a long time ago, but for a while there, I was so into them. (Only DC, though; no Marvel for me. Batman, Superman, even Booster Gold — I was a DC loyalist through and through, maybe because I grew up on “The Superfriends.”) My entire collection is still in the basement of my parents’ house, each comic in its own plastic bag with a piece of acid-free cardboard, and all organized in boxes by title and within that by issue number…